This is a special effect type of material that produces great effects when placed against a black background. It uses highlights to colour a material, and an extremely high Bevel Height to cut out most of the lighting that strikes the sides of the bevelled object.

Load up the file 'ringmaskblack.psd'. This file contains the ring from which the selection set to create the material samples was generated. Unlike the normal ringmask file, this one has a black background. The effect we are about to produce works best when dropped against black.

If you loaded the ringmaskblack file, you can Ctrl/Cmd-Click the layer with the ring to select it. If you didn't, create a new selection for the bevel.

Before you launch ShapeShifter, make sure you have selected a new layer. This will create the bevel without anything behind it. If you have something, say the black ring mask in the background you might find the edges of the object appear blocky after you apply. This is because the edges are antialiased, and if something is beneath them the antialiasing will appear odd.

When you launch ShapeShifter, you will be presented with the default settings. The material we're about to work on is fairly complex so we'll need to change a number of the basic settings. If you wish, you can load in the Halo from the tutorial's preset file. The rest of this tutorial assumes that you don't do that.

Note: Depending on the selection you have when launching, you may need to adjust the Bevel Scale in the Main Shape panel to prevent it bevelling too far. Ideally, you want a bevel that looks like a rounded shape and does not 'meet' in the centre causing sharp ridges.

Note 2: This particular preset looks best against black. If you have applied to an empty layer rather than the background, you can preview the effect against black.

• Go to the Preview's menu (accessed from the arrow at the top right of the preview).
• Select 'Preview Against Black'.

The preview now goes black outside the area of the bevel.

The Environment settings for this preset are important to prevent the bevel becoming too washed out when we add lights to it. We just need to make sure that the surface colour will work properly.

• Set the surface type to Metal by clicking the Plastic/Metal button until it lists 'Metal'.
• Using the Tint Color thumbnail, click and drag to select a strong, medium brightness Blue as the colour.
• Set the Mix Tinting Color slider to 100%.

These settings make sure that we have precise control over the colour of the result, and the Metal surface type means that our highlights won't just turn to white as we add lights.

The lights for this material are rather unusual. The special effect relies on us using highlights more than anything else to create the effect we're after. We are going to need four lights in the scene, so let's start by deleting all of the lights in there already.

• Select a light and press the Delete key. This deletes the light.
• When the light is deleted, another one is selected, so keep pressing Delete until they are all gone.
• Make sure the Ambient Glow slider is set to 0%.

The object should now be completely black, and it's time to add some new lights in. This time, every light we add is going to have a Light Brightness of 0%, so that we can use highlights only to create the effect. Highlights produce a more easily controlled area of illumination, and we want to make sure that the edges of the bevel are as black as possible.

• Add a new light using the Add Light button.
• Set the Light Brightness to 0%, the Highlight Sheen to 91%, and the Highlight Spread to 99%.
• Make sure that the Highlight Type is Sharp by clicking on the Sharp/Diffuse button.
• Move this light over the centre of the lighting preview.
• Make sure the light is white.

This is our first highlight, a strong one to give us a basic luminance to the result. Now we'll add three coloured lights to create some interesting colour patterns.

• With the previous light selected, add a new light using the Add Light button. The new light is a clone of the one that was selected.
• Make sure that the Highlight Type is Diffuse by clicking on the Sharp/Diffuse button.
• Using the light colour picker, set this light to a mid brightness red.
• Move this light to the top right of the lighting preview.

You will note that the blue colour tint of the material means that we don't get a direct red light against the material.

• With this light selected, add a new light using the Add Light button. The new light is a clone of the one that was selected.
• Using the light colour picker, set this light to a strong yellow.
• Move this light to the bottom of the light preview, just left of the vertical centre.
• With the previous light selected, add a new light using the Add Light button. The new light is a clone of the one that was selected.
• Set the Highlight Sheen to 93% and the Highlight Spread to 90%.
• Using the light colour picker, set this light to a strong green.
• Move this light to the left of the lighting preview, just below the horizontal centre, and slightly towards the middle (see the screen shot above).

These lights give us a strong colour tint on the surface of the bevel without applying too much light to the edges of the object.

This effect works best when the edges of the bevel are not visible. We can reduce the area in which the highlights happen by increasing the Bevel Height. This increase will reduce the smoothness of the curve towards the top of the bevel, narrowing the area that faces directly upwards, and as a result narrowing the area the highlights apply to.

• In the Main Shape panel, slide the Bevel Height slider to 100%.

Right now, the effect is too smooth. To change this, go to the Bump Panel and we'll add some noise to break up the highlights.

• From the Bump menu (below the Bump Preview) select the Simple Noise type.
• Set the Bump Scale to 71% (this may vary depending on the size of your image, we want quite large bumps at this point).
• Set the Bump Height to 30%.

Adjust the Bump Height slider and you will see the smooth ring on our bevel break up slightly. Playing with this setting produces a wider range of possible effects.

This special effect is of limited variety, but can produce some great results if you play around with the colours of the lights and the tint in the Environment panel.